No alliance or united front with Congress, says Karat

Vijayawada: The CPI(M) today categorically
ruled out forging an alliance or a united front with the
Congress in future.

"There is no debate on that. We will have no alliance
or united front with the Congress," Communist Party of India
(Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said at a press
conference at the end of a four-day Extended Central Committee
meeting of the party here.

The Left leader said they supported the UPA government
in 2004 only with the single point agenda of keeping the BJP
out of power.

Referring to the withdrawal of support to the UPA
government in 2008 on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal, the
CPI(M) general secretary observed that it was "correct and
necessary.

"This stand by the CPI(M) politburo and the Central
Committee has been endorsed by the ECC. But the ECC felt that
may be we should have withdrawn the support earlier than
letting India go to the International Atomic Energy Agency,"
Karat noted.

Asked if the "timing" of the withdrawal of support
was wrong, he said, "The question is not about the timing. We
should have done it at a time when we could have stopped the
nuclear deal.

"But, at that point, we wanted time for withdrawal
(of support) and prepare for the Lok Sabha elections," he
said.